I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for obscuring identities in wireless communication.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication serves such as voice, video, packet data, massaging, broadcast, etc. A wireless communication network may include many Node Bs (or base stations) that may communicate with many user equipments (UEs). The UEs may be assigned various identifiers or identities (IDs) used to uniquely identify these UEs for various purposes. In certain instances, the UE IDs may be sent over the air in the clear without any ciphering. This may make it possible for an eavesdropper or attacker to mount a linkability attack by monitoring a communication channel for messages and determining which messages are directed to the same UE over time. The linkability attack may be able to link messages to specific UEs but may not be able to determine the true identities of the UEs. The linkability attack may be used to track the locations of the UEs and may also be the basis of other more sever security attacks. For example, the attacker may be able to determine which UE ID is assigned to a particular UE by initiating a call to that UE and observing which UE IDs are used at approximately the same time.